WALMART NOTES - Future of Work

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School

York University

Department

Social Science

Course

SOSC 1510

Professor

David Langille

Semester

Fall

Description

How has Wal­Mart re­shaped the Canadian retail sector? What has been their impact on
those who work in this sector?
1. Walmartization concerns the profound and insidious transformations in regional and global
economies through sheer size, influence, and power
• Walmartization – another word for the New Economy
2. Key to the service economy:
• flexibility of employment and availability of workforce
3. Large percentage of jobs are peripheral and precarious – not offering enough security or
opportunities for workers to advance
4. However, for those workers in lower­end service positions, insecurity and precariousness are
the order of the day. They don’t have to worry about temporary slow­downs and lay­offs.
5. Work insecurity has become a feature of the new economy
6. The requirement for flexibility is coupled with an increasing demand for emotional labour as
work is structured to focus on customer relations in the employment relationship
7. Growing insecurity, polarization, precariousness within the new economy are worsened by
the shift in labour market (neoliberalism)
8. Walmart is the largest retailer with $405 billion in sales, 2.1 million workers, and 176+
million customers per week
9. Largest private employer in U.S 10. It imports more goods than most countries
11. Its income is 4x that of its largest competitor
12. Ranked #3 on “Fortune Magazine” list of top 500 biggest publicly traded corporations (2009)
13. When Wal­Mart moves into a community, smaller businesses that can’t compete go bankrupt
14. It first entered Canada in 1994 and purchased 122 stores in Woolco chain, causing at least 6
major chains to disappear
15. Wal­Mart’s objective: one­stop shopping
• Food
• Merchandise
• McDonalds
• Wine Store
• Hair Styling
• They even sell caskets online
16. Wal­Mart watch: and organization of citizens affected by Wal­Mart’s policies
17. According to Wal­Mart watch, 3 jobs are lost for every 2 that are created when Wal­Mart
moves into a community
18. Wal­Mart’s cost­saving strategy: greater number of part­time workers 19. The company will minimize cost to maximize profit – and is maintained by paying the
workers minimum wage and few (if any) benefits
20. Wal­Mart is anti­union
21. Culture of paternalism – managers controlling the employees from any “union talk”
• Artificially promoting them by naming them associates
22. Under globalization “retail dominated supply chains” lead the way by setting the parameters
for manufacturers and maintaining the upper hand in global transactions – a representations
from “push production to pull production”
23. Walmartization refers to the power and influence and also the structure an process of
manufacturing
24. Capping Wages
• Those earning more than the cap are denied annual wages
• They produce cheaper products by moving operation overseas (outsourcing)
25. Declines i